Hazards Law To Be Proposed Vera Carter Pushing Idea Because Of Martin Stories

March 23, 1990|By Jim Leusner And Christopher Quinn Of Sentinel Staff

Orange County Commissioner Vera Carter plans Monday to propose a law controlling storage, hauling and disposal of hazardous materials, including missiles built by Martin Marietta Corp.

Carter has pushed for the law before without success. She is pushing it again because of a series of special reports by The Orlando Sentinel this week about the safety of Martin's Remote Area, where it makes and stores missiles.

Meanwhile, a former supervisor of explosives safety in the Remote Area said he was surprised by the company's statements that missiles and rocket motors could not ignite and take off accidentally in a fire.

His comments contradicted those made Thursday by Dennis Smith, who supervised the Remote Area before being transferred to Alabama last year. Smith said in an interview that Martin's rocket motors would melt rather than take off in a fire. He said that tests simulating accidental fires have failed to cause Martin's missiles to take off, according to information Smith received Thursday.

Carter's proposed law would force companies that handle hazardous materials to list a building-by-building inventories of flammable, toxic and explosive materials. She wants to set specific routes that trucks carrying the materials must use and restrict shipment to certain hours.

The proposal would give the county fire, building and environmental protection departments jurisdiction over hazardous materials. Carter said she wants the inventories entered into a county computer, making it instantly available to firefighters.

County Fire Chief Mitch Floyd said Martin does not provide complete inventories of hazardous materials, citing national security.

The Sentinel reported that Martin can store as much as 1.4 million pounds of explosives and highly flammable rocket motors in the Remote Area, near the intersection of the Bee Line Expressway and south International Drive. Martin officials said they store much less than the capacity but declined to give specific amounts.

Carter said of Martin, ''We may not be able to control their activities, but we need to be able to respond to fires.''

The commissioner said proposals such as hers have been enacted across the country. She said she has asked commissioners at least three times since 1985 to consider the issue and they have directed Orange County Attorney Harry Stewart to draft a law.

Stewart said Thursday he could not remember being told to draft the law. He said he met with Martin officials about the Sentinel reports earlier this week and is satisfied that the plant is safe and well-regulated by federal inspectors. A report by his staff in 1985 said federal and state governments have jurisdiction over hazardous materials, leaving the county little to regulate.

However, Florida law states that local governments can regulate ''the use of heavily traveled streets by any class or kind of traffic found to be incompatible with the normal and safe movement of traffic.''

Robert Bleakley, who heads the federal government's office that regulates the transport of hazardous materials, said in an interview in December that his office has invited local governments to designate special routes.

The Sentinel's special reports also showed that Martin's missiles and dangerous components are shipped on some of Central Florida's most congested highways, sometimes on trucks that speed in the rain. The Army, not Martin, hires trucking companies to make the shipments.

Smith, who described himself as Martin's main expert on the storage of rocket motors and warheads, said the Remote Area is safe. He has 25 years' experience handling military explosives and has college degrees in technical management and business administration.

Smith said that if a fire started in a missile storage building, before temperatures became hot enough to ignite rocket motors, the solid fuel would melt into blobs. Then if the fuel ignited, it would burn in place, having lost its shape.

Three experts consulted by the Sentinel disagreed with Smith's conclusion. The three have engineering degrees with specialties in rocketry and together have more than 87 years of experience in the field. Two agreed to be interviewed on the condition they not be identified, fearing they would lose government contracts.

''I can't comprehend that (the melting). That defies the nature of the propellant,'' said Richard Sforzini, a retired professor at Auburn University in Alabama. He has worked with or been a consultant for the Army, rocket motor manufacturer Morton Thiokol, the Air Force and NASA.

Smith said the Army has tested Martin's missiles by starting fires around them, simulating accidental fires. He said the missiles have burned but not taken off. Test results involving Patriot missiles are classified, Smith said, and Martin could not provide a full set of test results for the Hellfire missile. When asked for missile test results before the Sentinel published its reports, Martin officials said the information from all such tests are classified.